The common understanding of evolutionary behaviour is that in all species it is the strong that survive and that cooperation between individuals in the group is at odds with that. Most scientists, however, don't hold that to be the case. In the very interesting article Birds Do It. Bats Do It. author Alex Dixon explores new research which shows that cooperation happens across the spectrum of living beings all the way down to the cellular level. In exploring these behaviours author Dixon suggests that the underlying principles of cooperation in the rest of the all living species can help humans embrace and improve upon their own cooperative instincts. Marilyn encourages you to consider this new understanding of the power of cooperation.

Marilyn LaCourt has authored some thought provoking ideas regarding the importance of cooperation between moderate religionists and atheists. She calls for an effort to support and maintain our secular Constitution in the face of the enormous pressure brought by religious extremists to bring about a theocracy in our great country, and to halt and reverse the errosion of our civil liberties which has thus far occurred as a result of their efforts. If you are concerned that the rising voice of religious extremism in the world today does not represent your views, read this article and share it with your like-minded friends. You and they will find Marilyn's rationality and logic both reassuring and timely to the challenges we face as a species.

Marilyn LaCourt has written a fascinating retort to the pessimistic vision of human nature set forth in Golding's “Lord of the Flies”. “The Prize” makes a compelling and convincing case that the terms of the discussion have been wrong from the start. Selfishness and selflessness aren't mutually exclusive—they can and do co-exist, as the student's in LaCourt imagined experiment demonstrate. Left to ourselves, she asserts, we learn that cooperation is crucial to individual self-interest.